Remembering Saibaba in London 

This speech was delivered by Lekh Pall, an activist from IWA and ILS, during the "Professor Saibaba Memorial meeting" organised by India Labour Solidarity in London on the 16th of Nov, 2024.

I won’t speak about Saibaba’s incarceration and the inhuman treatment meted out to him in that duration. Nor will I go through the illegal manner in which he was abducted and wrongfully sentenced to life imprisonment, along with his co-accused. These events ultimately led to Saibaba’s death for which the Indian State alone is wholly responsible. I have written about this on a number of occasions using various platforms that have been available to me. 

I want to, instead, share my limited encounters, meetings and conversations with our dearly departed Professor G N Saibaba. These took place during the couple of visits he made to England between 2008 and 2011. I got to know about Sai and the campaigns he was involved in through comrades in the Indian Workers Association GB. Certain members had close association with Sai through their links with progressive people involved in the revolutionary movements in India.

Saibaba’s visits were sponsored by the IWA, the first being in 2008 (some pictures of this visit). He brought over the knowledge of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation which was killing people and destroying the environment in the heartland of India. Saibaba revealed to the world, at least to us in the IWA, that a very sinister plot was afoot in India. A plot which involved a takeover, by multinational corporations, of the world’s minerals and natural resources. He was of course concentrating on the Adivasis living in the forests of India and the huge resources under their feet. It was Saibaba who educated and alerted us to the destructive policies of GPL pursued by a whole range of multinational corporations of the world. We came to learn first hand about the Indian military‘s Operation Green Hunt against the Adivasi, the tribal population of India. Such operations are still going on today, albeit in different incarnations.

I had the privilege of chairing a number of meetings where the professor elaborated his concerns to UK public. I recall the well-attended meeting in Birmingham, in 2008, where he explained the designs of the MNC to establish special economic zones (SEZ) throughout India. SEZ are enclaves granted by the government, where Indian laws largely do not apply. In these areas for example India’s labour laws and tax laws are exempt. The MNCs are given a free for all situation whereby they can loot and plunder at will. Saibaba was escorted to this meeting by friendly progressive organisations from the Turkish and Greek communities in London. I witnessed this fraternity a number of times in the following months and years.

I personally organised and chaired a number of public meetings for Saibaba to tell the world about the unfolding horrors in India. I recall one such meeting in London, October 2008, which was addressed by, amongst others, Arman Riazi who was then the General Secretary of International League of Peoples Struggle. Sai's interactions in UK extended to other organisations amongst the Turkish, Greek and Philopenas. I tried to hold another meeting in Birmingham on his subsequent visit to England in 2011. That meeting clashed with an event held by Kashmiri Workers Association, in Birmingham. Saibaba instead accepted their invite to address that meeting. I recall Saibaba saying that he gave unequivocal support to the Kashmiri People in their struggle for the self-determination.

That wisdom needs to be reflected in today’s world, be it in Kashmir, Palestine, Balochistan, etc. I had the privilege to meet Saibaba at an international conference in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 2011, if my memory serves correctly. This was an anti-imperialist international conference where Saibaba was a delegate from India. There he presented his paper The Pro-imperialist Development Model of the Indian State - Developing Displacement, Destruction, Destitution and Death! From that meeting he went on to meet European comrades in Sweden and other countries in continent.

Saibaba encouraged us to develop a regular bulletin through which we, the IWA, could spread the news of the destructive policies of the Globalisation, Privatisation and Liberalisation. This helped us to set up the No2Displacement campaign and establish a monthly No2Displacement Newsletter that ran for several issues (An example of the copy attached below). I recall how we, in the IWA, valued the fraternal relationship which Saibaba extended to us with revolutionaries in India and his endeavours to build a united international movement against imperialism that could hold multinational corporations to account.

I will end by recalling the mass meeting which I chaired in Friends House in London, in June 2011. This was a meeting held under the banner of Campaign to Stop War on People of India. My guests were Navin Sapkota, a Nepalese activist, Jan Mirdal, Swedish author of ‘Red Star Over India’ and Arundhati Roy who presented her essay ‘Walking with the Comrades’. This wonderful engagement with Arundhati Roy was instigated by Saibaba, from Delhi. They both had a very close relationship. The day before, I drove Arundhati, from one part of London to Southall, where we had planned for her to address the Tamil community. I said to her that Saibaba told me that he had arranged for herto address our meeting at Friends House the following day. I was amused by Arundhati’s remark: So Saibaba is now organising my diary. The following day Arundhati departed from Friends House with a clenched fist and the words ‘Lal Salaam’. That clenched fist and Lal Salaam I raise for our beloved Professor G N Saibaba. Lal Salaam! Lal Salaam!

Thank you very much.